Local woman opts out of trial in heroin death

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EAGLE — An Avon woman with a history of stress-related health problems has decided not to face trial in connection with a heroin death.

Kaile Wilson, 24, had denied she was responsible for Matthew Williamson’s heroin-induced death. However, rather than face a week-long trial in September, she will plead guilty to a felony heroin distribution charge. In exchange, prosecutors say they will not seek a prison sentence.

Monday was her deadline to take a plea deal offered by the District Attorney’s Office. She is scheduled to enter her plea Monday.

Wilson has no previous criminal record of any kind, said Joe Kirwan, the assistant district attorney prosecuting the case.

Wilson had surgery for medical problems related to the stress brought on by the case, and her recovery has been slower than expected, said her attorney Harvey Steinberg.

She was wheelchair bound for weeks after that surgery and made several district court appearances in that wheelchair.

Wilson was emotional at Monday’s hearing, her eyes red from crying as she stood with Steinberg at the podium in District Court Judge Russell Granger’s courtroom.

What police say happened

Wilson is accused of providing to Williamson the heroin on which he overdosed and died in February 2013.

Williamson’s roommates found him dead in a bathtub, half on his knees and half hanging out toward a toilet. Around 10 p.m. on the night he died, Williamson went out to the parking lot, telling his roommates he was going out for the night. He said he was going to meet a girl from Breckenridge. He came back to the apartment a few minutes later, said his plans had changed and went to bed.

The next time anyone saw him, he was dead. His roommates found him the next morning in the bathroom, and called police about 6 a.m. on Feb. 13 to report that Williamson was not breathing.

When police arrived, they determined that Williamson was already dead and had been for some time.

Police searched the apartment and found “a variety” of drug paraphernalia, including a bent spoon that contained heroin residue and a belt that appeared to have been used as a tourniquet.

Police said the autopsy and toxicology tests found that Williamson had died from multiple drug intoxication. Heroin was among those drugs, Avon police said.

Text messages from Williamson’s phone asked if a woman he called “Robin” could get drugs. Avon police detective Jeremy Holmstrom said he managed to track the phone number from those text messages back to Wilson. He said he put those text messages together to determine that they had negotiated a heroin transaction.

The Avon police investigation included Williamson’s cell phone and Facebook account, and it led them to Wilson, police said.